I’ve made the move to Windows 8 for my home server, leaving Windows Home Server 2011 behind. Don’t get me wrong WHS 2011 was good, but it was time to move on and adopt something new. I didn’t want a fully fledged server as I don’t need all the bells and whistles that come with Windows 2008 R2, or Server 2012, so chose Windows 8.

My home server runs on this as well as 2 x 1TB drives in RAID 1, for that extra redundancy. Setting up was simple, I booted from a USB stick using Microsoft’s boot method here. I used the same RAID card drivers for Windows 8 as I did for WHS2011 – apart from that I had no issues at all. All hardware was recognised, it was just then a matter of setting up users and adding my files shares.

Have been waiting patiently for the release of the Google Nexus 4 phone, so my email turned up this morning to say it was available. With immediate effect I shot over the google’s website to purchase one (16gb version)

Well I finally have my windows home server in a nice place, and running nicely. The specs so far:-

Asus AT4NM10T-I (4gb Ram)

2 x 1TB Seagate Drives (mirrored)

1 x Silicon SLi3131 Raid Card

1 x Pico PSU 12V 120W PicoPSU-120 with 80W Power Supply

1 x CiT MTX-001B Piano Black Shiny Mini ITX Case 300W PSU

I removed the PSU from the CiT case and used the Pico PSU as it runs at about 40W, which is only about 10W more than my ReadyNAS (which has been de-commissioned) At the same time I’m also running Smart Power by ignatu.co.uk which gives me some really good options for power usage. I’m running my server on a 9am – 12pm schedule out of this time the server is off.

When the server is on I’m running the Boinc client doing the Seti project, but with no graphics for better performance.

After many years of doing a computer review site I had to admit defeat. Keeping the site up-to-date with reviews & news etc had almost become a full-time job, which meant other parts of my life suffered. Being married means I have to give my wife some ‘quality’ time so I had to knock the site on the head.

So instead I have opted to go to for a simple blogging site that I can update at my leisure and still keep my hand in….!